Fall Of The New Dawn
by Wonder777
Summary: What happened after the events of "Prophet"? Yes, this is not related to This Present Darkness or Piercing the Darkness books, but Frank Peretti did write those and Prophet...so I feel this falls in this sub category on that alone considering they all come from the same writer.


_**Author's note: Contains spoilers for Frank Peretti's "Prophet". Centering around the only prophecy not yet fulfilled as given by John Barrett, Jr. at the end of the novel. The one where Hiram Slater would win the election, but by a reduced margin and that he wouldn't finish out the term.**_

 _ **"Fall of the New Dawn"**_

Hiram Slater was now the former governor of the State. Just hours earlier, he had resigned his position on the advice of his lawyers. Scandal after scandal had hit him and the office within the last three weeks. They told him there was no possible way he could be capable of performing his duties or even be trusted by the public while all this was going on. It had only been two and a half months since winning the heated election with Bob Wilson and winning another term as governor.

At the press conference, he had to address certain issues that had been running the rumor mill like crazy about him. His daughter Haley being pregnant, Martin Devin's claims of John Barrett Sr.'s death was on his orders, the woman who had come forward with serious allegations of him raping, inpregnating, and then forcing her to have an abortion while they were in college.

Hiram acknowledged Haley was pregnant and is with family out of state until she gives birth, denied Devin's claims he put out a hit on the older Barrett, all while keeping silent about the rape allegations on his attorney's advice. But just as he was leaving the podium, a process server had given him legal documents, right in front of the media. As for someone who loved the press, he never had a moment where he wished they weren't there more than when he got those papers.

Then it was straight off to a hunting cabin he owned with some land two hours away. It was the only home he had now that the Governor's mansion was no longer his. Just him now, no wife or kids around. The nearest neighbor was half a mile away and town two miles away in the opposite direction, isolation at it's finest. It was almost sunset before he arrived there and opened the envelope with a feeling of dread.

In his hands were the divorce papers. His wife Ashley had left with Hyatt shortly after the election and were living with friends. She had been visited by his mistress and finally had enough. Then, all through Martin Devin's short trial, he was accused of having an innocent man killed. One who was the father of a news anchor who saw through the image Hiram had so brilliantly put up. But had maintained his innocence through to the end. _That little traitor, I never would have wanted it to end like this. I could never stoop to murder. I have too much self respect to put out a hit on that old man._

In exchange for a lighter sentence and without a big trial, Devin admitted his role in John Barrett Sr's death, insisting he told Willy and his thugs to only beat up the old man until he gave up the tape. The only unedited version of Shannon DuPliese's 911 call about Hillary to still exist. He got twenty years to life while Willy and his cronies were still waiting for their trials.

He then reflects at the thought of his remaining daughter Haley being pregnant. That Wednesday afternoon he came home to confront her after getting the call from Ashley. She was shocked that he already knew, he only told her when asked only two little words, "It's Wednesday". It was worse than anything he ever had with Hillary. No matter what he tried to convince her to terminate the pregnancy, she stood her ground and refused.

"You never cared about any of us! You were never home, always out and about 'for the people' when you have no idea what's going on under your own roof! Face it, to you, we are nothing but decorations to bolster your so called image!" It was then in a fit of anger, he slapped her in the face, causing her to land on the floor. Luckily, she landed on her rear end and not her stomach.

Hiram then realizing the effects of what he had done, then tries to appeal to Haley's sensitive side. Helping her up and onto the couch, he reminds her she had a future and that a baby would greatly hinder the opportunities that laid ahead of her. It was the same line he gives to justify abortion. Never had he ever spoken at or even hosted an event that endorsed adoption.

"You can go on to have a productive life if you have an abortion. There is plenty of time later on for you to have a child, but high school isn't the time or place." He tries to use some of the tried and true rhetoric on his own daughter. "This baby will only burden you down. It's for your own good."

It was then Hiram regretted what he just said. Open mouth, insert foot. It was the last thing he should have said to Haley. She stared at him, mouth open in shock. It was then the trademark Slater temper came up full force. Haley couldn't believe what her father just tried to pull on her.

"You spout all about how a woman should have the right to choose. But when it comes to me, Hyatt and Hillary, it's a different matter. If you had spent more time with your family instead of creating a fake image, then we wouldn't have had to go looking for love in other places." Haley had been in his face at this point, barely keeping her tone below screaming.

"I did some research about those abortion clinics, like the one Hillary went to. Read about how they kill those babies, and the many ways it can go wrong, Hillary being a perfect example. I can't bring myself to do that, I refuse to put myself in that situation. All the psychological and physical effects I have heard from other women who had it done. I am having this child and going putting him or her up for adoption. That way they can bring joy to a couple who can't have a baby of their own." Haley finally begins to wind down.

Hiram could remember the anger and pain in her face. Along with the realization that he had failed with his own family. His only remaining daughter just telling him to take his abortion idea and shove it where the sun don't shine. Shame then floods him, making the man wish he was dead at that moment.

"So Dad, I am officially pro life. Nothing you can say or do will change my mind. So stop trying to persuade me to kill my baby. Maybe the 'mad old prophet' as you had always called him was right after all." Those were the last words Hiram heard from his daughter that day. He spent hours mulling over her words, along with multiple glasses of straight whiskey. Falling asleep in his office chair because Ashley wouldn't let him in the bed drunk like that.

Soon after, Haley was sent to live with her uncle who was a doctor that lived out of state. He would see she was taken care of and the adoption worked out. Hiram was very reluctant, but had to get her out of the public view before she started showing. She was only three weeks along then. Again, to protect his precious image, only saying to the public she was staying with family for personal reasons.

Now, here he was, out of a job, most of his so called friends now shunning him. The great Hiram Slater had been reduced to nothing but a broken man. Reputation was in the septic tank, his family was torn apart, with a dead daughter brought about by an abortion and the another pregnant by a boy at school who refuses to follow his orders to have her baby aborted. History had repeated itself with his oldest two.

Then there was the matter of the mad prophet's son. How did he know what was going to happen? The coffee, the running shoes down to the color and who sent them? About Devin getting arrested, Haley's pregnancy and the outcome of the election? Just before they all happened.

On election night when the votes were in and everyone else was celebrating and giving Hiram congradulations, his mind was on other things. He was miserable, at that point calculating how long his new term would last before the hammer fell. Every day it was like that, a ticking countdown to his destruction.

The following days after John Jr. gave the prophecies to him, polls showed the distance between him and Bob Wilson drastically decreased. What was a margin of double digits between them, became no more than six percent. Especially after his special assistant, Martin Devin, was arrested for murder.

The sound of the phone ringing beside his recliner brought him back to reality in his drunken state. Only a handful of people knew where he was and even fewer had his number at the cabin, so he answers it. In this case, it was his soon to be ex-wife Ashley by what the Caller ID said. Why would she want to call me now?

"Hiram," Ashley says on the other end as soon as he picked up the phone. "I just got some news from my brother. It's about Haley. She lost the baby earlier today, right around the time you were resigning the office." She hadn't been at the press conference and watched it on television instead.

"So, you got your wish with Haley having a miscarriage. The doctors say she will be able to have children later on though. That's now two grandchildren whose blood are on your hands. She will be back next week and stay with me and Hyatt. Are you drunk?" Ashley asks, hearing the sound of glasses clinking. That led to only one thing, along with him slurring his words upon Hiram answering the phone.

"How do I know this isn't one of your power plays? Using the kids against me like they're pawns? This is a new low, even for you." Hiram bursts out laughing, the whiskey intensifying his emotions. "Well, I learned from the best. She's coming back in a week, and I will keep her far away from you." She tells him, then the line then goes dead.

Hiram sits there, stunned at what he just heard, despite all the alcohol flowing in his veins. Then the voices started up, like so many times before. The sounds of children crying, begging him for answers. They ask him why did he allow them to die. Next came the weeping of women comes in, blending with the children's.

He never told a soul the real reason he drank. Before becoming Governor, he would only drink on very few occasions. It was those voices, and he had to drown them out somehow. Every one of the "women's rights" event he spoke at, they came up. He knew what they were, trying to prick his conscience. But recently, they have come more frequently and the alcohol wasn't cutting it anymore.

Hiram pours another glass and grabs the remote control at his side. Turning on the big screen television, idly flipping through, trying to avoid the news channels, which was hard, the press conference was broadcast nationally. Eventually settling on a movie about a family and their dog. During the commercials though, everything started to get strange. A voice, distant but distincive, calls out to him.

It was begging him to repent. The alcohol couldn't keep the voice away and then the children pleading becomes too much for Hiram. Getting up, he goes into the main bedroom and rummages through his luggage to find his anti anxiety pills. Since his first term as Governor, he had anxiety and had to take them to deal with the stress of it all.

 _Maybe a few of these will help, all the stress is causing me to hear all this in my head._ He takes a handful and swallows them down with a swig of his favorite bourbon. After about an hour, the voices did go down, enough for him to think clearly. He then fixes some dinner after realizing he hadn't eaten since breakfast.

Hiram was comtemplating what to do next. He had already written out his full confession, and with one call, would have a friend send out couriers to deliver to a few people and the media. Everyone would know within 24 hours. It was over and eventually the world would know the truth. There was only one option left for him.

Image was everything, it was all he knew. _Build a big enough image, throw enough money at the right people to turn a blind eye and nobody will pay attention to what's going on behind closed doors. That was what I was always told by my political heroes in confidence. But they never told me how to deal with what happens when it disappears in the blink of an eye._

The next day, Hiram gets a call from one of his few remaining friends that the State Bureau of Investigation was going to come calling with an arrest warrant. That was the straw that broke the camel's back for him. _There was no options left but one. I am not going to prison. My image may be gone, but I still got my pride._

Picking up the phone, Hiram made a call to one of the few loyal friends he trusted and told him to get the couriers to deliver the confessions. "You've stuck with me through thick and thin Bill, now it's time for me to relieve my conscience. It's going to all come out anyway, so I might as well do it myself."

After downing a glass of straight scotch, the next call he made was to Ashley, by then he was flat out drunk and with his medication, made him feel sluggish. She answers, and that was when everything hit the fan. "What are you doing calling here? You better be sober, or I won't talk to you and hang up. Hyatt is not feeling well at all so I don't have time for your mess."

Hiram tells her to shut up and listen, while stumbling to a gun cabinet and was somehow able to open it. He had a small collection of rifles and handguns in there, mostly for hunting and show. Choosing a pistol that his grandfather gave him on his eighteenth birthday, a custom made Smith and Wesson, he manages to load it while still holding the phone. It was a six chamber and all of them were filled, so unless it jams, nothing can go wrong for him.

Sitting back down, he has Ashley hear the gun cocking, and the chamber spinning over the phone. "Wanna know something? I never really loved you. Haley was right, you all were nothing but pawns for my image." He takes another sip of whiskey then twirls the gun like an Old West cowboy in the movies. "The old prophet was right. I put up such a great image, I ended up my believeing my own hype."

"It's all over, tell Haley I wish her and Hyatt the best for them." The voices begin again, and that one calling him to repent was also telling Hiram to stop what he was planning. He curses the voices in his head then it becomes too much and puts the pistol in his mouth, the taste of cold steel the last thing he remembers before closing his eyes and finally pulling the trigger.

Ashley stands in shock, hearing all that Hiram had just done. After a moment, she then calls 911, telling them what had just happened and giving the address where he was staying. It was then that was when she got a knock at the door. She goes over and opens it to find a courier on the doorstep bearing a package.

John Barrett Jr. was about to leave for dinner with his mom and son when the doorbell rings. Answering the door, he finds a young man in a delivery uniform standing there, asking who he was. After signing for a package, he sits down at the small dining table wondering what this was all about. Opening it, he realizes that what it contained was going to change everything.

With a quick glance, John concluded this was a full list of everything illegal Hiram Slater had done in his life. But there was a letter included with it addressed specifcally to him. John opens the envelope and begins to read it. It was just a simple handful of pages, handwritten and to the point.

 _Barrett_ , it began, _If you're reading this, something big has gone down. First of all, let me make a confession. I was a fool. You and your father were right, about everything. I want to say that right up front. Everything you two said that would happen did. The coffee spill, the shoes, Devin's arrest, everything. Now I hold the record for having the shortest term of any governor in our state's history that didn't end in their death._

 _As for your father, I tell you I had nothing to do with his death, despite what Devin said in court. The most I would ever do to your dad was to use him as a mere pawn to promote my agenda. Nothing more or less. Hiring thugs to murder was never my thing._

 _For once I concede defeat, everything has been taken from me. My wife has left me and taken my son, my pregnant daughter is with her uncle out of state, and I got nothing left. Blood is on my hands and there's nothing I can do about it._

 _So, I give you your biggest story yet. Everything I've done wrong since forever is all here. And it all began with a tape I entrusted one once close to me to destroy. Now it's over. Ever since all you told me came true, I had a crippling fear of everything coming out._

 _Election night, while everyone was celebrating my victory, all I was doing was counting down the days when my 'New Dawn' would turn into a nightmare. When it would end with me leaving office in disgrace. Now it's happened._

There was more for John to read, but he was interrupted by his son Carl running into the room, telling him to come in and see what was on the television. "Breaking news Dad, you may want to see this." The rest of the letter would have to wait until later.

He comes in the living room and sees the TV on one of the cable news channels. "Breaking News" in big letters across the bottom of the screen. The anchor was reporting that there was something happening with former Governor Hiram Slater. "Authorities are now reporting that Slater's wife called 911 after recieving a call from him. She's claiming that he was drunk and had a gun in his hand. Then a gunshot was heard over the phone."

She then goes into a brief history of Slater's political career. About him just stepping down from his Governor's position, then she's interrupted. "We're now getting word that Hiram Slater reportedly has been found dead. Repeat, we do not have confirmation, but our sources at the scene have said that he is deceased."

That hit John in the gut like as though it was an actual punch. He had been praying for Hiram ever since that day in the office when he gave those prophecies. He knew this man was telling the truth when he insisted that he had nothing to do with his father's death. God told him so, and John became like his father, finally beginning to embrace the prophetic gift passed down to him.

The hardest thing for John was testifying at Devin's trial. In his victim impact statement, he and his mom forgave Martin Devin for what he did. _It was only the right thing to do, it was how Dad would have wanted it._

John only had pity for Hiram Slater, no hate whatsoever. Him and Dad saw past the grand image that was built and saw a weak man who needed God. He was a miserable man long before all this. A healthy man who was dying inside. _Lord, what could I have done to prevent this suicide? Was there hope for him?_

John and his family visited Ashley and their condolences privately, no big show. Hiram was buried alongside his daughter Hillary in a quiet ceremony. No press and very few people, including his wife and surviving kids. It was best this way considering by then, the media was covering what was now called "The Confession List". It confirmed rumors that had circulated for years about the disgraced former Governor.

Hiram got the press he wanted all right, but it wasn't what he wanted. And it cost him all he had, including his own life. He had learned the hard way that image wasn't everything. His legacy was wiped out before it even really started. The "New Dawn" he boasted about, it never even broke...


End file.
